Category Archives: Reveley

I is for Indian Mutiny

11 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Cavenagh, India, Mainwaring, Reveley

≈ 19 Comments

The Indian Mutiny of 1857 put an end to the authority of the British East India Company and marked the beginning of direct Crown rule, the ‘British Raj’, which lasted until 1947.

Several of my relatives served in the Company’s army and in the British regular forces; some were directly caught up in the chaos and violence of the 1857 insurrection.

Last year I wrote about my second cousin five times removed Lieutenant Matthew Hugh Reveley of the 74th Native Infantry. On 11 May 1857 at the age of 27 he was killed in the capture of the Cashmere Gate, an incident of the Mutiny in Delhi.

“Kashmir Gate, Delhi, Punjab” photographed by Samuel Bourne  in the 1860s, showing damage from the Mutiny. In the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

A relative from a different branch of my family, my first cousin five times removed Captain Rowland Mainwaring Smith of the 54th Bengal Native Infantry, was also killed that day, cut down by mutineers near the Delhi Church close to the Cashmere Gate. He was buried on the Ridge near Flagstaff Tower. His name is preserved on a memorial in Nicholson Cemetery, New Delhi:

Sacred To the Memory of Captain R. M. Smith, Captain C. Burrowes, Lieut't E. A. Edwards, Lieut't W. Waterfield. All of the 54th Reg't B. N. I. They were killed by the Mutineers of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry on the 11th May 1857, opposite the Church in the city of Delhi, this tribute to their memory and merits is erected by their surviving brother officers.

The inscription on the grave of Smith and his fellow officers, ‘on The Ridge near Flagstaff Tower’, was transcribed by Miles Irving in his A List of Inscriptions on Christian Tombs or Monuments in the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir and Afghanistan Possessing Historical or Archaeological Interest published in 1910.

Irving described the murder of Smith and his fellow officers:

When the rebel cavalry entered Delhi, the 54th under Colonel Ripley were ordered to march down from cantonments with two guns. Two companies were left behind to escort the guns, and the rest of the regiment marched down to the Cashmere gate. Within, in the main guard, was a detachment of the 38th Native Infantry. While facing them, the rebels were surging down towards the gate. The 38th refused to fire, and the 54th excused themselves on the score of not being loaded. While they were loading, Ripley was cut down, and with him fell Smith, Burrowes, Edwards and Waterfield.

A month later sepoys under General Hugh Wheeler, commander of the garrison at Cawnpore, rebelled and besieged hastily-erected British defences. Another of my first cousins five times removed, Cornet Charles Mainwaring of the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry, was on lookout on the night of 22 June 1857:

All night long a series of false charges and surprises were made on the barrack, and not a man for an instant left his post. Towards dawn, the enemy being more quiet, Mr Mainwaring, a cavalry cadet, one of Captain Thomson’s picket, begged him to lie down, while he kept a look-out. Scarcely had the captain closed his eyes when Mainwaring shouted, “Here they come!” The enemy, with more pluck than they had hitherto shown, advanced close up to the doorway of the barrack. Mainwaring’s revolver despatched two of the enemy.

Charles Mainwaring survived the attack but Wheeler’s entrenchment was starving. Kingston continues “on the 25th of June General Wheeler entered into arrangements for the evacuation of the place with Nana Sahib. The next day the survivors proceeded to the river to embark on board boats prepared for them, when, with a treachery almost unparalleled in history, by the order of that demon in human shape, they were fired on and mostly killed.” Mainwaring was one of those killed in the infamous massacre.

Mainwaring is remembered on a tablet in All Souls Church, Cawnpore:

To the glory of God and in memory of more than a thousand Christian people, who met their deaths hard by, between 6th June & 15th July 1857. These tablets are placed in this the Memorial Church. All Souls Cawnpore by the Government N.W.P.
2nd Light Cavalry - Major E. Vibart. Capt E.J. Seppings, Wife and Children. Capt R.U. & Mrs Jenkins. Lieut R.O. Quin. Lieut C.W. Quin. Lieut J.H. Harrison. Lieut W.J. Manderson. Lieut F.S.M Wren. Lieut M.G. Daniell. Lieut M. Balfour. Cornet W.A. Stirling. Surgn. W.R. & Mrs Boyes. Vety. Surgn. E.G. Chalwin & Wife. Ridg. Mr. D. Walsh, Wife & Children. Sergt. Major H. Cladwell. Qr. Mr. Sergt. F. & Mrs Tress. Cornet C. Mainwaring 6th L.C. Lieut A.J. Boulton, 7th L.C.

Three of Charles Mainwaring’s brothers—Rowland, George, and Norman, were also caught up in the mutiny.

When the mutiny broke out in 1857, the first of these, Captain R.R. Mainwaring, was second-in-command of the 7th Regiment Bengal Native Infantry. This regiment mutinied at Dinapur with the 8th and 40th. In his 1927 “A Postscript To The Records Of The Indian Mutiny”, Lieutenant-Colonel George Gimlette wrote:

The mutiny of this regiment together with that of the other two of the B.N.I. at Dinapur (8th and 40th) was precipitated by the weakness of the General commanding at that station; an old, inefficient man. Strongly urged by the European community of Calcutta the Governor-General had given permission, but not an order, to General Lloyd to disarm the three regiments. This as an old, infatuated sepoy officer, he was loath to do, and could only make up his mind to a fatal half measure, that of depriving them of their percussion caps. On the morning of July 25th, 1857, the European troops in the station, 10th Foot, two Companies of the 37th, and a Company of Artillery, were paraded in the great square, the caps in the magazine were removed by an officer with a small guard, and brought into the square. The sepoys of the 7th made noisy demonstrations, and threatened to prevent the removal; they were, however, pacified by their officers. At 10 o’clock an order was issued by General Lloyd for a parade of the three N.I. Regiments, and the collection of the caps in the sepoys’ possession. The immediate result was open mutiny. The men seized their arms and began to fire on their officers. The European troops were again paraded, but their advance was so delayed that the mutineers got clear away in the direction of Arrah, where the disaffected Rajput landowner, Kunwar Singh, at once joined them with all his followers.

A telegram from Colonel Rowcroft at Dinapore on 8 October 1857 to the Chief of Staff mentions Captain Mainwaring, 7th Regiment Native Infantry, commands 50 Nujeebs [irregular militia, of good family] in the opium godowns, Patna.

George Byers Mainwaring, Charles Mainwaring’s second brother, was a considerable linguist, fluent in both Hindi and Urdu. In 1854 he had returned to England where he spent three years. He was recalled to India in 1857 at the time of the mutiny and was employed as interpreter with 42nd and 49th Regiments. He was first posted first to Cawnpore and then the Punjab region.

Norman William Mainwaring, Charles Mainwaring’s third brother, probably saw some of the mutiny, for though he was stationed in South Africa in the early part of 1857, by 1858 he had returned to India.

Another relative, my 3rd great uncle Major Orfeur Cavenagh, survived the mutiny. In a letter of 1868 (Private letter book, 11) he describes his role in its suppression:

In 1854, at the special request of the then Governor General Lord Dalhousie, [I] accepted the appointment on his staff of Town Major of Fort William [the fort in Calcutta]. In this capacity as the Governor General’s representative, [I] recommended the numerous alterations in the European Barracks and other buildings as well as general sanitary improvements, which have led to the ordinarily satisfactory state of health of the Garrison.
On the 26th January, 1857, [these measures] frustrated the design of the Mutineers to seize Fort William (vide statement of Jemadar Durrion Sing, 34th Regiment, N.I.).
Throughout the Mutiny discharged all the arduous duties connected with the command of Fort William and Calcutta, including the charge of the state prisoners, the raising a Corps of Volunteers, the organisation of a body of Native Servants for the use of the troops arriving from England, the management of a large Military Canteen, the protection of the town, the control of all Public Departments, Military Buildings, Hospitals, etc., and the entire charge (arming, clothing and victualling) of all European invalids and recruits, numbering several thousands, of the company’s service. On four occasions received the thanks and commendation of the Supreme Government.

In recognition of his services during the Indian Mutiny Orfeur Cavenagh was offered the post of Governor of the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Malaya and Penang). He accepted and became Governor for eight years from 1859 to 1867.

The causes immediate and long-term of the Indian Mutiny are still debated by historians. No doubt my relatives had their own opinions. For them, however, it was no academic debate but a bloody vicious turbulent period of their lives and, unfortunately for some, a violent death.

RELATED POST AND READING:

Wikitree:

Death of Lieutenant Reveley in 1857

16 Thursday Jun 2022

Posted by in India, military, Reveley

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Matthew Hugh Reveley, one of my second cousins five times removed, was born in 1829 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, the son of Algernon Reveley (1786 -1870) and Diana Reveley nee Betty (1806 – 1846), both British. His father had been a writer (clerk) in the Honourable East India Company in Bengal from 1803 to 1822.

Matthew grew up in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He was schooled in classics, with some mathematics, at a private establishment at Shooters Hill, in southeast London.

In 1847, at the age of seventeen, Matthew joined the East India Company‘s Bengal Army as a cadet. In August 1853 he became a lieutenant in the 74th Regiment Native Infantry, at that time based in Cawnpore, an important commercial and military station, 500 kilometers southeast of Delhi. By 1857 the regiment had moved to Delhi, where on 11 May it mutinied in the revolt that became known as the Indian Mutiny.

From a map of Northern India showing the mutiny 1857 – 59. Retrieved from Luscombe, Stephen, “Indian Mutiny.” The British Empire

Bengal Native Infantry regiments typically consisted of 800 privates (sepoys), 120 non-commissioned officers (havildars and naiks), 20 native commissioned officers (subedars and jemadars), 2 British sergeants and 26 British commissioned officers. Regiments were commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and were divided into 10 companies, each assigned 2 British officers and 2 native officers. Each regiment was assigned an adjutant, an interpreter and a quartermaster. In 1857 there were 74 Bengal Native Infantry regiments.

The Sepoys at Rifle Practice: The Enfield Rifle was introduced in India towards the close of 1856. From “1857 : A Pictorial Presentation.”  Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1957, page 3 retrieved from Internet Archive.

The Indian mutiny began—or so it is said—when sepoys refused to use new rifle cartridges, which were rumoured to be lubricated with grease containing a mixture of pig and cow lard, religiously impure for Muslims and Hindus. In May 1857 85 sepoys of the Company’s army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi refused to accept the new cartridge. They were court-martialled and found guilty of disobedience and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment with hard labour. On Saturday, May 9, the entire garrison was paraded to witness the sentences being put into effect. On 10 May Indian troops there, led by the 3rd Cavalry, broke into revolt. Some British officers, their wives and some civilians, including 50 Indians, were killed.

Most of the sepoys and sowars from Meerut made for Delhi on the night of 10 May. Early on 11 May, the first parties of the 3rd Cavalry reached Delhi.

The 74th was one of three regiments of Bengal Native Infantry stationed in barracks a few kilometres northwest of the city. They provided guards, working parties and other contributions to a “Main Guard” building just inside the walls, near the Kashmiri Gate on the northern circuit of walls, and to the arsenal in the city and other buildings.

from The City of Delhi Before the Siege – The Illustrated London News Jan 16, 1858 showing:
14. Cashmere Gate, 25. English Church (St James’s Church), 26. Magazine and Store Houses
from an 1857 plan of Delhi retrieved from Luscombe, Stephen, “The Siege of Delhi.” The British Empire
“Kashmir Gate, Delhi, Punjab” taken by Samuel Bourne in the 1860s and showing the damage. In the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Edward Vibart, who at the time of the mutiny was a nineteen year old lieutenant with the 54th Native Infantry, described the Cashmere (Kashmiri) Gate in his 1898 account of the mutiny: 

…the Cashmere Gate, as this place was destined to be the scene of our operations for the remainder of this eventful day [11 May 1857]. This gate, like most fortified gates, is approached by two roadways cut through the glacis, one for entry and the other for exit, each of which, passing under a separate arched entrance, leads into a small fortified enclosure, called the Main Guard, which was always garrisoned by a detachment of fifty sepoys under a European officer. It consisted on this day of men of the 38th N.I., under Lieutenant Procter of that corps. This duty, which was taken in turn by each regiment in the
garrison, and lasted for a week at a time, was looked upon as a rather irksome one by the European officers, as the officer in command of the detachment was not allowed to quit the precincts of the Main Guard, and had always to be dressed in uniform.

The events at the Cashmere Gate in Delhi on the afternoon of 11 May including Reveley’s death are told in “The Tale of the Great Mutiny” which includes an eyewitness report by Edward Vibart:

Matters quickly came to a crisis at the Cashmere Gate. About four o'clock in the afternoon there came in quick succession the sound of guns from the magazine. This was followed by a deep, sullen, and prolonged blast that shook the very walls of the main-guard itself, while up into the blue sky slowly climbed a mighty cloud of smoke. Willoughby had blown up the great powder-magazine ; and the sound shook both the nerves and the loyalty of the Sepoys who crowded the main-guard. There was kindled amongst them the maddest agitation, not lessened by the sudden appearance of Willoughby and Forrest, scorched and blackened by the explosion from which they had in some marvellous fashion escaped.

Brigadier Graves, from the Ridge, now summoned Abbott and the men of the 74th back to that post. After some delay they commenced then' march, two guns being sent in advance. But the first sound of their marching feet acted as a match to the human powder-magazine. The leading files of Abbott's men had passed through the Cashmere Gate when the Sepoys of the 38th suddenly rushed at it and closed it, and commenced to fire on their officers. In a moment the main-guard was a scene of terror and massacre. It was filled with eddying smoke, with shouts, with the sound of crackling muskets, of swearing men and shrieking women. Here is Colonel Vibart's description of the scene : —

The horrible truth now flashed on me — we were being massacred right and left, without any means of escape ! Scarcely knowing what I was doing, I made for the ramp which leads from the courtyard to the bastion above. Every one appeared to be doing the same. Twice I was knocked over as we all frantically rushed up the slope, the bullets whistling past us like hail, and flattening themselves against the parapet with a frightful hiss. To this day it is a perfect marvel to me how any one of us escaped being hit. Poor Smith and Reveley, both of the 74th, were killed close beside me. The latter was carrying a loaded gun, and, raising himself with a dying effort, he discharged both barrels into a knot of Sepoys, and the next moment expired.

The death of Lieutenant Matthew H. Reveley of the 74th N.I. was reported in the London Gazette of 10 February 1858 as killed at Delhi on 11 May 1857.

Reveley’s name is recorded on a tablet in St. James’ Church, Delhi, which is situated near the Kashmiri Gate –

Lieutenant M.H. Reveley. Killed at the Cashmere Gate Delhi 11th May 1857.

St James’s Church, known as Skinner’s Church photographed by Robert and Harriet Tytler in 1858. Retrieved through the British Library.

Related post and reading:

  • O is for Orfeur – another cousin on a different branch of the tree, Orfeur Cavenagh (1820 – 1891), also was a British officer during the mutiny

Wikitree:

  • Matthew Hugh Reveley (1829 – 1857)
    • Matthew was a grandson of Jane (Champion Crespigny) Reveley (1742 – 1829) and great grandson of Philip Champion de Crespigny and Anne (Fonnereau) Champion de Crespigny